The bargainista handbag … does it exist?

If price were not an object … a bag from local designer Rebecca Ciccio.

We shop so you don’t have to …

Fall is in the air — well, sort of — and our thoughts have turned to handbags. To be honest, they’re never too far away from that topic, but with both the carry-to-work bag and the Italian fashionista purse showing serious wear, it’s time to add another to the arsenal.

Our criteria are thus: If it’s going to be an oh-so-fashionable oversize purse, it needs to be sturdy enough to hold whatever’s coming along to work that day; it needs to be a more interesting color than black; and it should be under $200.

Impossible? Maybe, maybe not. Last year, we found a faux-leather raspberry carry-all that lasted an entire year at Target for $29. A woman in Nordstrom once stopped us to ask about its provenance, clearly convinced it was from Marc Jacobs or someone like that. Alas, faux leather doesn’t last forever.

We started the search at the Nordstrom Fall Anniversary sale, where the bags were weighted down with enough grommets hardware to be used as weapons, and came away unimpressed. Will this trend ever end?

The magazines are buzzing with countless new designers launching handbag lines, but for those of us who don’t want to spend $1K or more, we still think our locals are better bets. Goldenbleu, who we first wrote about in early 2005, continue to turn out cute, covetable totes, and this season has brought some great back-to-basic styles by Rebecca Ciccio and Bryna Nicole. Ciccio’s Madison Nailhead style, pictured above, might be the perfect go-with-anything color to transition into fall. (We found it on the Azalea website for $495.)

We’ve also scouted out some cute budget-minded bags at Therapy and Sunhee Moon, who share a fondness for Latico. Moon assures us she’s getting more of the Scarlet in for fall. Club Monaco has a nice, refined bag, but in boring black.

The search continues, with Target being the next stop. We’ll keep you posted!